Gary Lamphier: B Corp movement redefines what business success means

"People talk a great game, and a lot of companies talk about the triple-bottom line. But we wanted to prove that we play a great game," says Katie Frost, Chandos's marketing manager. "Getting B Corp certification provides proof we're doing what we say we're doing."

Gary Lamphier, Edmonton Journal

Updated: July 29, 2016

Meghan Dear, CEO of Localize, an Edmonton startup company is part of the B Corp movement, which aims to provide a formal framework for measuring and certifying companies that want to benefit society.Ed Kaiser / Postmedai

News flash: some firms don’t walk their own talk. That’s not exactly a shocker, I realize, but some of us had to learn that lesson the hard way.

To wit: I once worked for a small Vancouver firm that recruited me with promises of a friendly, collegial workplace where things like personal fitness, extracurricular and family activities supposedly trumped the craven pursuit of profits.

It was a nice cover story, but it didn’t work out that way. Most employees, including me, worked killer hours while the boss lived the big life, whether he was cycling in Arizona, wine collecting in California or cruising the Caribbean.

I recall spending several Christmas vacations working on client projects while trying to make it to my son’s hockey tournaments. No wonder we staffers dubbed ourselves the “lifestyle support” team. The boss enjoyed the great lifestyle while we got to support it.

Many companies do walk their own talk, however. For them, concepts like social and workplace accountability, respect, transparency, giving back to the community, shared prosperity and good governance are more than empty slogans. They define the company’s very heart and soul.

In fact, there is now a global movement to assess and certify firms that meet the loftiest standards of corporate conduct. It’s called the B Corp movement, and it now numbers more than 1,800 firms worldwide, including 170 in Canada and a handful in Edmonton.

Local firms that are now B Corp certified include midsize players like Chandos Construction, a well-established general contractor with about 350 employees, and fast-growing early-stage companies such as Localize, Flatter:Me Belts and Peace Power.

“People talk a great game, and a lot of companies talk about the triple-bottom line. But we wanted to prove that we play a great game,” says Katie Frost, Chandos’s marketing manager. “Getting B Corp certification provides proof we’re doing what we say we’re doing.”

Meghan Dear, CEO of Localize, an award-winning five-year-old technology company that provides hundreds of grocery retail outlets with on-shelf labelling systems so consumers can track where their food comes from, echoes those views.

“The analogy that’s often given is that B Corp is to business what fair trade is to coffee. So B Corp certification really looks at how you run your business holistically,” says Dear, a U of A science graduate.

“It proves you are measuring it, and there is some stringency to what you’re doing, including how you treat workers, how you govern your organization, and the transparency of your organization, both internally and externally.”

It’s not easy to become a B Corp. An applicant must undergo a rigorous certification process, one that requires a thorough examination of its management and board composition, its environmental practices, its engagement with the community and the way it treats employees.

The certification process, which costs between $800 and $10,000, depending on a company’s size, is administered by B Lab, a Wayne, Pa.-based nonprofit group that believes business can advocate for social good, as well as economic gain.

“Certification is really tough,” says Carla Hein, a senior manager at Business Development Bank of Canada’s Kelowna office, where she is charged with developing and supporting Western Canada’s B Corp community.

“For me, B Corp certification is almost like a health check for the business. It’s more than just branding. It really does consider all aspects of your business,” she says.

“So we find that B Corps are very well-managed and very aware of all aspects of their company, since they’ve had to document and fine-tune all of their practices and processes. There is a lot of rigour that you wouldn’t necessarily see in an average company, and once they’re certified, they have to maintain that.”

There is a generational aspect to the B Corp phenomenon, of course. It is particularly attractive to a new generation of entrepreneurs, like Dear. For many of them, corporate success is not only about generating a profit.

It’s about making a positive impact on society — socially, culturally, environmentally and economically. In that sense, many younger entrepreneurs reject the profit-driven corporate ethos that ruled the lives of millions of baby boomers, although Dear insists the gap between generations isn’t so huge.

“I don’t feel a lot different than an old corporate guy. I’m running an earlier stage business that has a lot of stuff to look at, too, so the last thing we need is another layer of complexity. But there are some very good reasons for why we think being a B Corp is important,” she says.

“One reason is that statistically, B Corps are better run. Part of that is just looking internally at questions like, ‘Do you have an engaged workforce?’ and ‘How do you engage them more effectively?’ Older corporate guys are always looking for better ways to run their companies, too.”

“I think it’s fair to characterize B Corp companies by saying that social impact is part of their mission. We often talk about the generational divide and sometimes I think there’s a difference in the language of what we’re talking about,” she says.

“Definitely what we know is the millennial generation — and I’m just on the cusp of it, since I was born in 1980 — is that millennials are more interested as a workforce and as a consumer force in the broader narrative. That means the impact of who they’re working for, what they’re buying and how they want to operate in the world.”

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